


Stray Voltage sequel ficlet

by Asuka Kureru (Askerian)



Series: Daemon AUs [7]
Category: Girl Genius
Genre: Alternate Universe - Daemons, Gen, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, fan jaegers everywhere, mentions of gore, seriously there is one vague mention of klaus in there, that's it for the canon characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-17
Updated: 2017-02-17
Packaged: 2018-09-25 04:45:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9803147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Askerian/pseuds/Asuka%20Kureru
Summary: Happens during the Stray Voltage epilogue.--So yeah, the last week was... kind of vaguely hairy but... He and Isaac arefine. His wounds have healed fast -- of course they have, he's a goddamn jaegermonster -- and TahirknowsIsaac is here (where else would he be) (god, so much earth), is fine too, because Isaac is perched in the crook of his neck, dull claws digging in, half-buried in his collar. Living fur and warmth right there against his fluttering jugular, long ears flicking into his eyes, there's no way to miss it.It means just about nothing that he won't jump off and explore the bushes ahead of Tahir. Of course it doesn't. It's cold, is all.He's been a bit cold himself. Maybe the weather is turning to snow.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [adiduck (book_people)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/book_people/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Atmospheric Electricity](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4676600) by [adiduck (book_people)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/book_people/pseuds/adiduck). 



> List of Things you need to read if you want to have a chance in hell of understanding wtf is even happening :
> 
> -[Nuée Ardente](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2067129) by me (some townie dude and some jaeger dude hook up on background of escape from grumpy spark.) (sequels optional)
> 
> -[Flashover](http://archiveofourown.org/series/216905) by Adiduck (AU of the first: the townie dude is now a secret heterodyne. cue star-crossed master/minion angst, people taking levels in Badass, and assassination attempts.)  
> \--> Flashover's sequels, especially the one about the honor guard as that's where you'll meet the main character Tahir. (good luck, they're long. totally worth it, though.)
> 
> -[Stray Voltage](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7460964) by me (AU of the second: the secret heterodyne version of the townie dude now has a fuckoff huge badgermole daemon. things go much faster from there. they still hook up tho, sorry for the spoiler.)
> 
>  ~~-The one AU where they're now *both* secret heterodynes, with daemons, in space.~~ i'm kidding. that one doesn't exist ~~yet.~~
> 
> This fic was Adi's christmas present. Tahir needs some cuddles but he'll settle for a hugeass daemon that lets his daemon climb on her. u.u~

So yeah, the last week was... kind of vaguely _hairy_ but... He and Isaac are _fine_. His wounds have healed fast -- of course they have, he's a goddamn jaegermonster -- and Tahir _knows_ Isaac is here (where else would he be) (god, so much earth), is fine too, because Isaac is perched in the crook of his neck, dull claws digging in, half-buried in his collar. Living fur and warmth right there against his fluttering jugular, long ears flicking into his eyes, there's no way to miss it.

It means just about nothing that he won't jump off and explore the bushes ahead of Tahir. Of course it doesn't. It's cold, is all.

He's been a bit cold himself. Maybe the weather is turning to snow.

"Vot's dot veird noise?" Isaac whispers, and Tahir -- Tahir had already gone tense the second Isaac did, but the words make him dive under the next bushes, ears angling up in the same direction, nose wrinkling to catch a hint of scent.

Exposed stone, churned earth -- the scent twists in his guts but it's less fresh, less muddy than... Anything unstable. There's probably a path or a road nearby, but the sound doesn't... It's not wheels. There are chugging rotors, a whine of rubbing metal, but it echoes weird on the trees and slopes, like it's not --

Like it's coming from the sky.

They are less scar-- _wary_ of madboys than they are of. Of _normal_ people. Boring, plodding _people_.

"Ve iz not pipple," Isaac mutters, nose twitching, legs twanging with aborted kicks on his shoulder. "Ve iz jaegerkin."

" _Much_ better," Tahir agrees, and plasters a smile on his face. 

Then a giant badger daemon crosses the sky, wearing a dozen little human shapes and two turbines like saddlebags, whirring loudly away.

"Iz dot," he and his daemon chorus, both sets of ears perking straight up, already grinning. 

"Iz _ridiculous_ ," Isaac says, mildly enraptured.

"Iz a madboy, vot hyu expect?" 

He knows neither of them expected a daemon being ridden by other people than their other half, but that's sparks for you. 

And what's better is, that's a spark they've _never heard of_. Therefore one they've got to check out.

Maybe a recent breakthrough. God, the _chaos_. Tahir vaults over a trunk and takes off running -- the dirt road goes the right way, mostly, so that's what he uses, keeping the vrooming dot in his sight through the tops of the trees as much as possible. It's going fast though, about to get out of sight -- losing some altitude, so maybe preparing for a landing (or about to crash); Tahir concentrates on running, lets Isaac note down shearing winds and angles of descent and distances. They'll catch up once it lands.

They crest a peak and Tahir almost trips, catches himself on a tree, guts knotting ice-cold. Of course there's a town down there, burrowed in the narrow valley, walls bristling with electrified spikes, streets like cramped canyons. Of _course_ that's where the madboy went, he thinks, shirt sticking to his back with sudden sweat. He can't see the badger-thing, but where else.

He makes himself walk closer, a bit, hands trailing on trees, Isaac burrowed under his chin, tightening Tahir's collar laces up around him with his flat teeth.

"Could observe from dere," Isaac mutters. "Mebbe schmotter, effen."

"Could," Tahir echoes half-heartedly, gut churning with how useless, how disappointing he is.

Maybe the badger-spark is... visiting family. They could be here a while. Be mean to interrupt, though. Doubtful Tahir and Isaac will miss them when they leave again. Tahir and Isaac don't have anything better to do anyway. May as well waste a few weeks checking out yet another dud lead. They could camp around a while, and, yeah, he's not really thinking that the family visit theory is very likely either--

A crack of rock echoes like a gunshot through the valley, with the peculiar echo that means it's coming from pretty far away, that means it was _loud_ where it came from. It's still loud even now. On the battlements the electricity still dances, untouched, and he's too far to even see people on them, on the streets behind, but.

That's one building down -- wait, two; the gunshot crack comes a couple seconds late. He thinks he sees flames. Ugh, looks fun.

"Or hy guess ve _could_ move a leedle closer," Isaac ventures, only showing out of his collar from the eyeball up.

God, those walls are so stupidly tall. But if he stays on the crest of the mountain over there... "Hokay," he says, like it's nothing to talk about, and hops ahead. Kind of _circling_ the town, and only coincidentally getting closer. It's less... Less.

He still wants to see that madboy in action. Promises to be a little distracting, even if it ends up just as pointless as the rest of, oh, _everything_ he has done since he was detached.

They're halfway up the rocky peak that leans closest to town when a big rumble comes up the mountainside and a line of townhouses start leaning out one after another like the wake of a breaching trout. And then --

"Oh, dere she iz," Isaac says, wriggling a little higher up his collar, front paws propped on his collarbone. "Vot a nize digger. Tink she iz using sumtin extra?"

"To part de earth like dot?" Tahir replies with a chuckle. "Look, hyu ken see de sun sparkling off dose talons, iz no vay doze iz natural."

"Might be nize," Isaac mutters, and Tahir says nothing about how hares aren't rabbits and don't dig, don't ever go under the earth.

If he was a soft, plump rabbit instead Isaac could have dug them out. If he was a rabbit _the size of Tahir himself_ , that is. That dumbass. Tahir's throat is tight with things he cannot say; he wraps an arm around his daemon, runs a finger down his forehead, smooths down his twitching ears. He wants to cry. He wants better weapons. But his whole _self_ is a weapon already, and they can't -- can't just. Upgrade themselves. Can't do that. They already are the best they can be and it's...

It wasn't good enough. Not alone, it wasn't enough.

It doesn't sound very fun anymore to just watch as a spark and a handful of minions cause faraway, possibly short-lived chaos. This town has good defenses; it'll have good soldiers too, probably. They're too helldamned _shellshocked_ to get close enough to see anything interesting anyway and he just. He wishes. He wishes he still had enough spine to get to the town walls and heckle the invaders, throw some advice, make some bets with Isaac.

He wishes he wasn't so broken the thought of doing it alone makes him want to cry like a scared out-of-towner brat.

The castle is starting to light up red and gold at the cracks. He wipes at his nose, buries his mouth and chin between Isaac's ears to watch. There's a tinny, odd scream...

... There's a long, carrying echo, a full-throated call, bouncing on the town wall and the cliffs and up the slopes -- one voice and then three, then more, and Tahir and Isaac still like their heart just stopped.

"Iz... iz dot," Isaac says long after the silence has fallen again, as the castle slowly sinks in the distance.

Tahir launches himself down the slope without thought, rebounds against a rock, skids down a pile of loose rocks and gravel -- kicks off a localized avalanche, throws himself ahead of it. Throws himself down the side of the mountain so fast it's only _technically_ not a fall, because his feet keep touching down and sending him farther before he can _quite_ lose his balance and crash. Isaac is holding onto the edge of his collar for grim life, quivering with tension, and they both shudder when the low call comes a last time.

It's not a _hallo_ this time around, like a band of their brothers having their fun, giving fair warning because it's hilarious how terrified the townies get instead of getting _ready_. 

It's not a _hallo_ like Wulfenbach jaegers might give, acting out of orders to pretend later they just got over-enthusiastic, or they misunderstood -- or one like grouped-up detached jaegers like him, or.

It's a " _To de Heterodyne!_ ".

There's a. 

There's.

The badger. Giant flying badger. New spark. Jaegers.

Isaac flies out of his collar like a furry arrow and Tahir only remembers to follow him when the tether between them tugs sharp under his ribs; he stumbles, and then he lunges, sweeps his daemon off the ground and throws himself at the city walls, teeth bared. There is nothing in his head but static and terrified despair, and _rage_. He screeches to a stop at the top of the wall on instinct to let the main of the lightning burst past and throws himself in a gap with half a second to spare, all his fur puffing up in painful sparks. And then they're in, they're in the canyon-town with the _walls_ and the group of soldiers racing up a street to get at Chestibor and Konstancja's backs.

Tahir is landing in the middle of the group and tearing it apart with bare hands before he has had to _think_. He thinks he kicks through someone's daemon once, and barely notices, the death sparks washing through his leg (wrong, _wrong_ but he doesn't _care_ ) before he lands stumbling and rolls back up, and Isaac launches himself right at a bulldog's eyes and back-kicks them out of her face.

They're left panting and wild-eyed, teeth bared in the middle of a sea of gore and Konstancja comes plodding up to them, little tail up and quivering in eagerness.

"Brodders!" she calls out, eyes bright. "Iz great, look at de young Master go -- hi, long time no see!"

Tahir sways.

Then he surges into Chestibor's chest into a savage tackle. Chestibor, of course, barely wobbles under his sudden attack, feet planted in the earth and too much mass to move without a hell of a lot more leverage. Tahir hugs him around the neck, smothering Chestibor's face into his chest -- then Chestibor's arms come up, and he flings himself off before he can be hugged (restrained) back. Though really it was more likely that Chestibor would pick him up by the back of the shirt and lift him off like an annoying kitten.

Haha. Well. Things are getting blurry around here. Probably another devious spark thing. He grins with all his teeth and looks for Isaac -- finds him dancing his crazy march hare dance up and down Konstancja's wide back. Isaac launches off, rebounds off Tahir's head, and lands on the ground, rangy and wild-eyed and actually making little bunny grunts.

"Hoy, Konstancja, vot -- Isaac!" a fox barks at them. "Isaac, awesome, hyu iz vit me. Hy need sumvun to do de ricochet ov death vit."

The tone of command is so clear Tahir and Isaac hop to follow, and there's -- Velimir and Militsa, going down a street, passing a corner and then they're on a plaza before the slowly sinking castle but Tahir doesn't even see it because half of his field of view is taken up by a giant daemon's back, three times as tall as he is, bristling with turbines and armor, humming and crackling with spark inventions. There's a black-haired young man he doesn't even see the face of with Captain Lazar and Marta marching at his side.

"Master Sorin!" Veli calls. "Parents safe, ve iz ready to go!"

"Chestibor, Pavel, close guard," Lazar barks as he turns to look at them. "Velimir, Stani -- Tahir? Huh. Hokay. Tahir too, hyu three on point. Go."

Tahir is surrounded by walls, but also by kin, brimming with bloodlust and pulling him along -- and there's a little see-sawing hum coming from the giant daemon as she starts to plod along in the heart of their formation that makes all the hair on his spine poof back up.

Falling into position is the most natural thing in the world.

Tahir still hasn't seen the new Master's face, but there's his voice, distracted, humming with slow-gathering madness; "The ruling family," he says. "I want every single generation there is to find before the castle sinks."

"Jah!" they all bark at once, and shoot through the front gate. 

\--

Their names are Sorin and Gabriela and they go from focused-distant, professional dismantling to town-burning rage when offered people in tribute; and when they see that Tahir and Isaac are laughing too hard, too breathlessly, sitting on the floor in some sneaky secret tunnel they can't go any farther in and hugging themselves, they break from snarling at the lord's toadie son to ask him if he's okay -- then oh, hey, who he is, he wasn't on board Gabriela, hello, yes, could you please find something to do outside like go and tell our parents we're fine and it went perfectly for example why not. And breathe and stay on the roofs if you would be so kind in case anyone comes from above yes thank you.

He starts crying the second he lands on roof tiles, jumped from the highest tower (which is still leisurely sinking, so, not very high at all right now.) Isaac is back inside his collar, grooming desperately at his jaw, and he chokes on a bubbly laugh and sniffles. It's -- it's not great, being alone again just after having fought and won with his brothers for the first time in years, it's a cold slap to his hysterical face, but.

There are other jaegers out here, with other Heterodynes? One other Heterodyne, at least. He's on a mission. He's on a real, official mission. 

He is no longer detached. 

The thought comes to him as he's waving hello at Markus and Sveta and he bursts out crying in the air, lands blubbering and eyes three-quarters closed. Markus stares at him with all his eyes wide in alarm, hand still raised to wave like he's forgotten it there.

"Shot op und kees me, hyu beautiful bastard!" Tahir shouts, and pretends he's going to lay one on him just so Markus will stop thinking the brand-new Master just got killed or something soul-breaking like that.

"Hy deed not miss hyu _dot_ much," Markus says, but he's probably lying because he slaps Tahir's shoulder hard in passing. "Hyu looking for de Mistress, jah? Iz chust vun level down, in de--"

Inside something crashes to the floor. Tahir rushes in blind, bumps into Markus, and it's dark and his eyes are blurry from his tears; he follows Isaac less by sight than by the tugging of their bond.

Three men, sneaked out of a secret passage in the chimney, in town guard uniforms -- Tahir plunges a hand through one chest without thought, whirls on the third as Markus tackles the second away from an older, half-swooned man --

And ends up face to face with an older, stern-looking woman with Master Saturnus' chin and Master Carmine's hellfire eyes, as the third guard's bull daemon topples to the ground in slow motion.

Something black and shimmery scuttles off its massive shoulder and disappears under her long skirts without a word. It only takes the bull another five seconds to explode into death dust.

"... Mistress," Tahir says, because there is no way she isn't.

"Wipe your face," she says, not unkindly, and pulls a handkerchief out of her pocket and hands it to him before going to crouch at her husband's side. The man, wheezing, accepts Markus' help standing back up; a man and woman in hospital clothes that Tahir hadn't even noticed (eh, _minions_ ) rushing to his side to fuss.

Tahir wipes his face. Tahir cries a little more. Tahir wipes his face again, with his sleeve, because the handkerchief is soggy now, and says, "De young Master took der kestle und de lords, Mistress."

An old, gray-edged hunting dog snuffles kindly at Isaac's flank, wags her tired tail. The Mistress' husband gives a long sigh and sags.

"That child," he mumbles, eyes closed. "Please do tell us everything."

"Quite," the mistress says, and directs Markus to check the hidden passage and Tahir to sit on a padded footrest before their chairs. "Your report, please. How did Sorin..."

She falters there and Tahir thinks to wonder how long they have known what kind of blood they had in their veins, how long to decide to shoulder its weight, harness its power. 

He wonders if it was scary. He doesn't think they will be scared very long, but. Fear is no fun at all.

"Master Sorin deed verra well," he assures them. 

When he turns in his seat a little he can see the blinds open a crack onto the street and the last point of the castle disappearing over the roofs. He could go out that way, if he so chose. And he thinks if the roof dared to come down onto the Mistress she would erupt it off just like her son. 

"Und Keptain Lazar vos goot und ve gots everyvun on de vay out. Und den ve ketch de lord, und he sez, _vot hyu tink hyu iz_ ," he makes sure to make the voice, Isaac jumping up to stand on his back legs to imitate the man's squared shoulders and lowered head, "und pulls out a beeg cannon!"

"Oh no," the Mistress' husband says right on cue. Tahir grins and discreetly wipes his eyes. 

"But den Mistress Gabriela huffs und stomps on de floor und a plank shoots up right into hiz crotch und he flies off in de air!"

"Oh god," the husband interjects once again, but this time like a laughing, cringing groan. The Mistress cracks a thin smile and shakes her head in mock-despair, shoulders loosening just a tad.

"Vos _beautiful,_ " he assures them. It has to have been Master Sorin's first raid, if he hadn't been found sooner, and being scared for a Heterodyne is weird, but. Not for your own child, he supposes. "De timing vos perfect, und he vos so deep in de madness place Hy dun tink de lord guy could haff found de nerve to shoot ennyvays."

"That's... That's good to know," the Mistress's husband says. The Mistress's hand is closed tight on his shoulder. "And then?" 

"Und den! Hyu son sez, _vho iz hy? Iffen hyu tried to kill me for beink sumtin den mebbe Hy vill try to be dot_ ,vit de scary voice und all, it vos great." Isaac stomps around, back rounded and head low, front paws turned inwards like a giant badger-thing advancing on tiny prey, in his and Tahir's eagerness to convince them it went fine, it went _perfect_. " _Vould not vant to **disappoint**_. Und de lord's son schtarted crying und ran off vit his maids in de schneaky tunnels. Und den after dot..."

\--

It is _slightly_ odd how far Master Sorin can get from Mistress Gabriela -- but General Snerra signaled them away from Klaus and Alexandria, which is where the human half of their master is, and besides Mistress Tereza said for half the guard to take a break while the Generals were around to handle the close watch. Which none of them _need_ , they are _jaegerkin_ not _wimps,_ but they figure they shouldn't hoard the Masters away from the _Generals_ , that's just not right.

Tahir perches on the back of a town bench and tries not to let his legs jiggle too much. Captain Lazar and Velimir are off with the Master's family but Chestibor and Stani are right here on the bench with him, and he doesn't... He _wants_ to annoy them, but being chased off would. He doesn't want _that_.

He likes it, sitting in the shade of Mistress Gabriela's body. It's a bit frustrating to watch Sorin so far away, in sight but out of earshot unless he shouts, but she's here; his kin are here.

Also Isaac has taken to jumping out of Tahir's clothes to ricochet off Stani's lynx and Chestibor's hippo, long feet thumping hard on their flanks to send himself flying in increasingly weird and twisty trajectories.

It's not a big surprise when Stani stretches out past Chestibor's shoulders to whack Tahir in the shoulder, and Botund whirls to swat Isaac's rump with his big paw, claws carefully sheathed. Isaac skids on the paved stones and plunges under the bench; Tahir has to dodge under Botund's leap. "Run!" he shouts to his daemon even as he falls straight off the bench. He lands flat on his back and wheezes out a laugh, cranes his neck to watch. 

Mistress Gabriela is crouching in a hole, fiddling with pipes and things underground, still higher than a grown man at the shoulder though her head hangs just over ground level, and Tahir hesitates -- feels Isaac hesitate -- and Botund closes in, and Isaac leaps.

It takes the young Mistress at least three seconds to blink her tiny blind eyes and lift her head, and by then Isaac is already up on the highest point of her spine. Botund growls and hunkers down, eyeing her boulder-sized shoulder and not quite jumping yet.

"Did someone just...?"

"Sorry Mistress!" Isaac says, hunkering down as well, and Tahir tenses up, ready to stand and catch him when he jumps off. "Hy vos just. Botund vos mean und growly."

"Botund, don't growl at Isaac," the Mistress says absently, and twists something underground before she sits up and turns to face them -- slowly, carefully, so Isaac has time to climb higher to avoid skidding all the way down on her slick pelt.

"Oh, hey, Hy ken see de kestle from up dere," Isaac says with a snicker. The town castle's highest spire is now five feet deep in its little lava hole and still leisurely drifting. Tahir wonder if it'll ever stop, or come out the other side of the Earth some time in the next decade. "Vot a nize spot," he adds, almost leering. "Hy gets vhy Militsa luffs it."

"Well. I suppose it's convenient when you _can_ see? I remember seeing, before I settled," Gabriela adds with the indifference of someone who doesn't really miss it. "I probably would feel vibrations just as well if I were smaller, personally, but do feel free." 

"... Iz hokay?" Isaac asks, voice just barely shaking, instead of accepting it blithely. Tahir swallows. 

"Yes, that's fine, Mila does it all the time. You're not heavy at all, I barely notice."

"Miiiiila," Isaac repeats under his breath, and Tahir snickers, though inside he still feels unsteady. "Um. Thenk hyu, Mistress."

Most Heterodynes were pretty handsy with their jaegers -- arms thrown possessively around shoulders, backslaps, friendly shoves even. Master Carmine's hydra coiled her necks all around daemons of wounded jaegers, possessive almost like a snake with its dinner, but a dinner it didn't feel like swallowing anytime soon. Which felt very safe -- if a little punitive too, for getting themselves stupidly hurt. Master Omnix's cockatrice brooded them when he was drunk. Master Igneous's ice drake...

They were the ones who climbed and enveloped, though. Tahir doesn't remember a Heterodyne inviting them to use her as a climbing gym. (As a mobile castle.)

"Vot about me?" Botund asks, and touches a large paw to Mistress Gabriela's pillar-like front leg.

"I carried you just fine earlier, didn't I," Gabriela says with a snort. "Go ahead. Sorry, I've got to finish this..."

She pushes her nose down at whatever it is she was working on in the hole, and starts to hum. Botund considers her for two seconds, and then springs straight up her shoulder for Tahir's daemon. Yelping, Tahir jumps for Stani, to try to distract her, but she whirls and then they're rolling on the narrow band of bricks between the bench and the Mistress's hole, trying to get at each other's hat. Chestibor, head craned around, watches them with a debonair lack of concern, as Konstancja plods around the bench to peer down into the hole. 

The sound of their fight is a bit muted by the edges of Gabriela's heterodyning, but not to the point that Tahir and Stani miss Markus hopping over the bench to flop across the two of them as Sveta lolls her tongue and eyes up the Mistress' shoulder like she's thinking of hopping up. Isaac and Botund stop on the spot, Isaac slipping under Botund's fuzzy chest to hide.

"Don't hyu try treeing me, doggy-gurl," Botund growls as Stani wriggles free, leaving Tahir crushed to the ground trying fruitlessly to find a good kicking position. 

"Hyena iz not _dog_ , kitty-boy," Sveta returns with an amused snort, and Tahir is sure that she's about to jump and chase them up the Mistress's giant body, but instead she just sighs and returns to Markus' side, still grinning with too many teeth.

And then Isaac launches himself in the air from three meters up and hits her right in the head, distracting Markus for the crucial second needed for Tahir to sneak a leg between them and send him flying. He jumps back on his feet, laughing breathless and heart beating just a _little_ bit too fast for roughhousing with friends. It was friendly, it was Markus, they're not close but he _knows_ him. Ha. Haha. It was nothing. 

It _was_ fun, was the thing. Just also... Also with not-fun bits all threaded through, which are... Really frustrating, but they're still on a wide-open plaza with that odd, otherworldly note floating in the air telling Tahir that nothing is impossible to the singer, and that the singer takes care of what is theirs. So. That's not so bad.

Then the rest of the guys start to drift in. Huh. 

"Dey gots a new squad to pick up watch to get de rest ov us sum downtime," Yavor says with a shrug when Stani asks. "On account ov ve iz not a proper guard und blah blah stress und lack ov preparedness."

"Ve dun need _rest_ for a three-day raid!" Botund hisses, tufted ears flicking backwards with annoyance, as he hops down to the back of the bench. "Ve iz a _great_ guard alreddy."

Markus lets himself fall on the bench, most of his eyes hooded lazily. "Eh. It vos _great_ raiding vith a Master again, Hy iz not saying iz not, but all de fretting iz _not_ for me. Vot Hy tell de Master iffen dot guys deed kill de Mistress und hiz poppa, huh? Hy see mine life flash before mine eyes, und it vos _not_ long enuff yet."

Stoyan makes a noise of agreement, and then Yavor. 

"Agree. Hy dun vant to neffer be able to let go in a fight vithout tinking, whoops, vos so much fun hy vent und got de _vun_ person hy ken't get keeld." Yavor shudders. "He iz so new at de scary ting, too." 

"Got de knack though!"

"Haha, jah, jah. Mebbe in a few years, vhen he gots good und terrifying und hiz body is made half ov sparky tricks..."

Chestibor is standing with his thumbs in his belt, an eyebrow up to look at all of them like he doesn't recognize them; Stani's shoulders are squared, her chin down and mulish. 

Tahir isn't too sure what his ears or face are doing.

"Vell, _hy_ iz schtaying on dis guard until dey remoff me vith a _cannon_ ," Stani growls, and Chestibor nods, a small smile floating on his face. Konstancja is leaning her rotund side against Mistress Gabriela's much vaster flank, looking blissful. 

Tahir...

Tahir holds Isaac in the crook of his arm, and says, "Iffen hyu deed not _dodge_ de cannon, hyu vould disappoint me, seester," and Stani blinks at him and then grins with all her teeth.

Heart thundering, Tahir grins back.

"You guys know you're supposed to use the cannons to throw cannon _balls_ , no throw the cannons themselves, right?" Mistress Gabriela asks, sounding a little concerned as her head throws shade -- safe, furry, protective shade -- over the bench. "I ask because I've seen some of you using muskets like clubs and shields like hatchets, so now I'm wondering. I'm going to have to redesign your weapons a _lot_ if you're not using them as intended, you know?"

"Iz hokay, Mistress," Isaac says, and climbs to Tahir's shoulder to strike a high-chinned, noble pose. "Contrary to doze veaklings, mine body iz all de veapon Hy needs."

"Oi!" "Hey!" "Doze iz fighting words!"

Four of Tahir's brothers try to swat him at the same time, and he weaves through the group laughing so hard his eyes water.

"Oh," Gabriela is asking Isaac, "so you won't want the miniature prototype for my claw sheaths then?", sounding a little amused.

"God, _yes_ , Hy vants it," Isaac says like an oath, holding hard onto Tahir's hat.

At the other end of the plaza Master Sorin is sneaking them looks right over Klaus' shoulder, and Captain Lazar and Sergeant (ha!) Velimir are rolling their eyes indulgently, and when Markus finally catches him in a headlock Chestibor wades in through the brawl to get Markus right back.

**Author's Note:**

> cannot remember if i spelled those out: 
> 
> Chestibor: Konstancja, hippo  
> Stani: Botund, lynx


End file.
